DaysofPal – The Barcelona City Council voted on Friday to suspend institutional ties with the Israeli government and freeze its 1998 friendship agreement with the city of Tel Aviv, citing violations of international law and the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people.
The motion—comprising around twenty clauses—was backed by the ruling Socialist party along with several leftist and pro-independence parties. It calls for halting all official relations with the “current Israeli government” and formally pauses the long-standing twinning agreement with Tel Aviv-Jaffa.
Socialist Mayor Jaume Collboni stated: “The level of suffering and death witnessed in Gaza over the past year and a half, coupled with the Israeli government’s repeated attacks, makes any relationship between our cities unsustainable.”
The council also urged the board of Fira de Barcelona (Barcelona Exhibition Centre) not to host Israeli government pavilions or companies linked to the arms trade or sectors “profiting from genocide, occupation, apartheid, or colonialism against the Palestinian people.” A similar recommendation is under consideration for the Port of Barcelona, calling for a ban on ships transporting weapons to Israel.
This is not the first such move by Barcelona. In February 2023, then-mayor and former social activist Ada Colau suspended all ties with the Israeli government, including the sister-city agreement with Tel Aviv. That decision was reversed after Jaume Collboni won the municipal elections later that year.
The latest resolution comes just days after Spain officially recognized the State of Palestine on May 28, 2024, alongside Ireland and Norway. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government within the European Union in recent months.
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